The New Assimilated American

By Nicole Montclair-Donaghy

My name is Kampeska Cinkila Win, Lakota for “Little Shell Woman.” My English name is Nicole Montclair-Donaghy. I’m an enrolled member of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I’ve long debated whether or not to share this piece. I believe that our stories should be shared, as they are a part of all of our histories as humans.

In 1924, my people were given the right to become American citizens after being on these lands for centuries. A few years prior to that, the US Department of the Interior’s “Ritual on Admission of Indians to Full American Citizenship” was performed when any Indian wanted to denounce their traditional ways and live the life of the farmer. This is an important time in history, as it was not so long ago—within my grandmother’s lifetime.

History books do not tell the correct story of Native American peoples, as they incorrectly portray our people as conquered and defeated. On the contrary, we have learned to become what the plan for us has always been: colonized, assimilated, and everything other than who we have always been.

My poem, “The New Assimilated American,” touches on the historical ritual that was used to relinquish our identity as a people. To become the farmer, where men harvest the earth, and where women become the foundation of the home. Ironically, we were already all of those things. It also speaks to the beginning of the boarding school era, in which many Native children were taken from their homes and forced to assimilate to western ways.

Although there are many people who consider immigrants the “new” Americans, we as Native people were new citizens in our own land, just sadly forgotten.

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Learn or die, that is the only way

Tell me who you are, but be careful what you say

No native tongue,

No savage cry

Your name will now be Christianized

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The noble savage

Kill him, save the man

Learn our ways as fast as you can

Run into the shadow of grace

The Lord doth love you

Now let me replace,

Everything you’ve ever been

Your primitive lifestyle is a sin

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Cut your hair and stand up straight

For your ritual is here, and all await

Denounce yourself,

You’re not yet like us

Everything you’ve ever known is now in our trust

Stand proud and walk this way

You will be a real person after today

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Shoot your last arrow, and leave the Indian behind

Take the hand of the plow and then decide

It’s savage or man, be this thy choice

Make our words, but use your voice

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A stranger in your own lands,

This is not your country

Forced to live a different life abruptly

Your ancestral lands, gone forever

Still all is well, this dream is better

-

You’re a citizen now, ward of the state

Children at boarding schools, learning a trade

Be a good citizen, stay in your place

Our religion will save your hellish fate

Be a good American, for your own sake

This is how we assimilate

James McLaughlin performs a citizenship ritual for Native Americans of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Fort Yates, North Dakota, on December 18, 1917. The ceremony included the shooting of last arrows and the symbol of a plow to farm.

(State Historical Society of North Dakota 1952-00372 Frank Fiske Photo)

NICOLE MONTCLAIR-DONAGHY is a Lakota/ Mandan and is an enrolled member of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is a field organizer for Dakota Resource Council and works on oil and gas issues in western North Dakota.